Themes within The Golden Legend
Lisa Schwind Depaul Student Themes Within Golden Legend Within the novel, The Golden Legend, by Nadeem Aslam has many different themes throughout the whole novel. Here I will talk about each one and how it played throughout the novel. Religious Discrimination: This is one of the most important themes throughout the novel. It is seen a lot when it comes to the fact that Christianity is the minority and Muslim is the majority. From this, there is a lot of discrimination between the two religions. A perfect example where you see this is when Helen is talking to the person welding his knife. While talking to him the man says, “Christians have black blood”(Aslam23). He wanted to cut Helen in order to see just because this is something that he has believed since he was a child. There is a strong sense of symbolism in this theme because of how Muslims viewed Christians. It is an idea that Christians were viewed as evil so this would be able to make the discrimination okay. Corruption: Throughout the novel, there was a lot of corruption happening with the leaders of Pakistan and the issues that were at hand. A big part of the corruption was the fact that Pakistan didn't really have a true leader when it came to these situations that can take control of the situation. The military was torturing those who wanted to get the word out to the world about things happening. Meaning that they'll do whatever it takes to cover themselves before thinking about protecting others first. This shows a lack of leadership since they weren't doing what was in the best interest of the people because of all the shady business that was taking place within the government. With that being said the government would rather protect themselves, even individually, before protecting the people of Pakistan. In the novel, Solomon says to Major Burhan, "For the Pakistani state, perhaps. Not the Pakistani people"(Aslam283). From this, you are able to see how there is a strong sense of corruption within the government. This is the exact reason why the government is so week and there really is no leadership within it. 'Love: ' On a different side of the novel, other than the corruption and discrimination, there was a theme of love that flowed throughout the novel. From the characters to the theme of the novel you are able to sense a strong bond and friendship of characters. Showing that there is also some hope and need for some sort of good to happen within the novel. The characters had to help each other stay strong at a time when the country was so weak. Because of all the violence, they would have to work with one another instead of fighting with each other which was already happening everywhere around them. At a time like this, they were also able to learn and develop a sense of feeling towards one another. Helen and Imran start to develop romantic feelings towards each other. Helen was trying to get used to this, it says, "She was old enough to know that neither of them was old enough yet to know what they felt...For the rest, she would have to wait patiently and see"(Aslam234). While she felt this sort of love towards Imran she knew that she didn't actually know what the feeling really meant. While we never really know what happens and there are many different interpretations of what could have happened with them it gives an even bigger understanding to try and learn the love that they had for each other. 'Violence: ' Another big theme that is portrayed throughout the novel is violence. Because of religious discrimination and corruption, this plays a huge role as well. The theme of violence combines the two other mentioned because of the amount of hatred that was happening throughout Pakistan. Because of the amount of hatred towards religious discrimination, there was a lot of violence taking place in the country. One part of the novel shows the extent of violence someone could take because of the discrimination that was happening. It says in the novel, "They had beaten her so savagely that Imran was born three days later with a broken arm"(Aslam116). This was when his mother asked the Indian soldiers about her missing husband. They didn't care if she was pregnant or not, they didn't care about putting her or the baby at risk. All they cared about was the things they had to do in order to protect themselves, which is where corruption comes into play. 'Hope: ' To end the topic of themes on a good note a good one to talk about would be hope. The characters throughout the novel had an insane amount of hope towards their living and surviving. It seems as though having some sort of hope helped the characters at their lowest points in the novel. With a novel that could have so many tragic ideas, there is a good sense of hope for characters and the readers as well. Massud said, "We can't lose heart, and we can't lose focus in trying to make things better"(Aslam265). By comparing Pakistan towards the other countries it shows hope that since they were able to get better Pakistan will be able to eventually as well. While there are so many negative themes throughout the novel because of the damage that was done. It is important to see the positive outlooks and themes of the novel as well. This quote shows that with all the bad going on the characters were still able to believe in the hope towards a good end that they all believed in and wanted. Category:Themes